B&K 200.2 S2

I own a reference 200.2 series 2 and the Reference 5 S2 pre-amp. I found them altogether more musical and neutral than the Rotel Gear. Power is tremendous. B&K rates conservatively (225 wpc into a 5-45khz response). I drive a pair of B&W 805s with it and it isn't even working hard. It can handle large current hungry speakers. I find it clear without being clinical, with great imaging, soundstage, and plenty of extension (even through B&W bookshelves). I will be getting 803s/d soon and am planning to use this amp for them as well, with the slight possibilitiy of doubling up. One thing I can say for sure is that B&K is definitely a step up from NAD and Rotel. And I own NAD gear as well. Hope this helps

I too own a B&K reference 200.2 amp and Reference 5 S2 preamp. I just swapped out the preamp for tubes, as I wanted a little bit sweeter and smoother sound. I would rule out the Rotel. I have heard it in a setup and although it sounds pretty good, it lacks the bass extension and the dynamics of the B&K gear. The B&K gear is made in the USA, has a very solid build quality and never even gets warm even when I push it with 6 ohm speakers. I have changed everything in my system except for the amp if that tells you anything. I like it that much. The only thing I would consider above my amp is amps costing about $3500 and up. These would be the Mcintosh, Lass Labs, Krell and Mark Levinson

I have owned the B&K Ref 200.2 and 200.5 in the past. These are really great power amps, better than the NAD, Parasound, and Rotel counterparts with equal power rating. The B&K just has more musicality and still maintains accuracy and integrity of the performance. They image really well, have nice dimension, good soundstaging, good dynamics, good tonality, and have good power output handling. These amps are made to last long, never had a problem with them, good solid build quality, not made overseas. If you want a good two channel amp the 200.2 is a good choice, but if you can swing for the bigger 200.5, this amp does even better on two channel operation. The 200.5 has a bigger toroidal transformer and beefier caps, this yields more power reserves and effortlessness, speedier reaction time, more dynamic, more attack, and increased stage size , that's what I noticed when I switched to the 200.5. It also has another 3 channels for your home theatre spekaers, so it can be versatile and future ready. Or you can use four channels to bi-amp your front two speakers and use the remaining channel for the center. Lots of possibilities and at the same time it provides better two channel performance over the smaller 200.2.